Parasite (new Bong Joon Ho movie)

It's pretty much the movie that I wanted Us to be.

Oh good, other people picked up on the doppelganger element. I liked it as a black comedy of inequality and the "problems" of one-percenter parents. The subsequent excursion into thriller/horror fits, but I agree that the film would have profited from a tightening up of the running time.

I loved Us! I think as much as Get Out

haven't seen Parasite yet but based on Okja, Snowpiercer I'm only somewhat hopeful

Parasite is so much better than either Okja or Snowpiercer.

never seen okja but snowpiercer is hot garbage.

Memories of Murder and Mother are both capital G Great films and The Host is a double capital G Great Genre film

i've avoided seeing Okja because he is sure as shit gonna make me feel for the big hippo thing and then kill it. i've played the last guardian; can't fool me again

I liked this a lot. The symbolism is club-you-over-the-head, but it works despite/because of that. And it's pretty funny through the first two-thirds. I didn't mind the ending, it felt like that was where it was always headed.

this was kind of a hot mess? it definitely shook me but i'm not sure i enjoyed the ride. idk so many "powerful" things leave me feeling exhausted these days.

Didn't really seem like a mess to me, I thought it was pretty tightly constructed.

oh no it was extremely tight of course (although maybe there were some pacing / pov issues near the end that could have been handled more carefully?), it was just too slickly constructed and hyper-meaningful for my tastes. like i think i respect that it's aiming to be a shakespearean tragedy about capitalism but it's also in the form of a 32 oz monster energy drink and it was all too much for me tbh.

i mean i definitely *felt* a lot during this movie but it was ultimately kind of exhausting. of course it was also funny throughout but the humor was also too frenetic for me. like i laughed louder when renee zelwegger pushed the bad sculpture off its pedestal in front of her ex's house in the otherwise very sad but also similarly profound judy garland biopic that i saw last weekend, maybe because the humorous moment had a bit more space around it and r.z.'s performance in that movie is extremely good.

there's several indelible images stuck in my mind from this film even now (the "ghost" shocking the boy eating cake, the kick down the stairs, shaving peachfuzz) but this isn't a super thoughtful or challenging movie... i'm fairly certain it was never meant to be.

the image stuck in my head is the dogs eating the meat on the skewer stuck in the corpse

yeah that's a good one

at least what it says about the trauma of capitalism is true. it may not be super challenging or whatever but it's otm, and in the form of a slapstick comedy/thriller. for instance, how the trauma of capitalism perpetuates itself across generations and how it's larger than any bogeyman character. idk these aren't exactly the easiest concepts to present in a mainstream film? but tbh i don't watch very many movies so.

quoting myself upthread but if you want to see some other films in the same vein that are as good/better:

Burning=Shoplifters > La Ceremonie =Parasite >>>>Snowpiercer=Sorry to Bother You

haha thanks though i'm not sure i have it in me to watch a film with similar themes for .. a while

it's also in the form of a 32 oz monster energy drink and it was all too much for me tbh.

haha, yeah that's a fair description.

Its central arguments and symbolism are super on-the-nose, but for me they landed with some oomph because the writing, acting and filmmaking were all sharp and often funny. (Until they weren't.) The long scene where they descend and descend and descend from the rich house to their semi-basement apartment, in a growing flood, only to find their home literally submerged in shit — on the paper that's grindingly obvious, but in the execution it was scary and heartbreaking.

I actually liked this more than Burning — or enjoyed it more, I guess. I liked Burning but it felt a little remote to me, unsurprising given its source material.

i dunno, there's so many moments in Burning that felt like pure honest complex dreams to me. it's a more mystical film i guess, don't think i'd say remote?
my sense is that a lot of folks who fell head over heels for parasite (and why it's so very popular) is that audiences are self-congratulating themselves on appreciating the complex class issues of what amounts to a cartoon. but maybe i'm being snobby i dunno.

i have at least four friends who basically never see movies who were raving to me about how brilliant this was and i feel like a total dorkus malorkus saying "yeah, i love the director and i saw this twice and it was... very good" and then they're all like "WHY DON'T YOU LOVE IT?!?!?" and there's no way to adequately explain that without referencing a lot of his films and other people's films that i know they haven't seen.

maybe the right answer to "why don't you love it" is to give them a thumb drive with Mother and Memories of Murder on it and ask them to check back with me in three months when they get around to watching it to see it they agree?

i was SO taken with those two movies and then host was such a great oddball genre film that i was psyched to go wherever this guy wanted to go and then, well, snowpiercer.
with parasite, i think i've come to the conclusion that Bong is an immense and great stylist but that he's not going to likely level up into something more highbrow and affecting now that he has more money and fame a'la Park Chan Wook or Lynch. Maybe you could make a comparison to Miike? Dunno.

Yeah he's definitely more of a populist/popcorn director than e.g. Lee Chang-dong. But he's an interesting and talented one, I think. I agree that Mother is probably his best movie, and it is surprising in a lot of ways — stylistically and narratively — that Parasite isn't.

i really like him! i'm just in the unpleasant indie fuck position of being unable to avoid saying "his earlier films are much better"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCqjR1gHyIQ
in any case your post made me realize i should see more Chang-dong, so thanks for that! recommendation for the best one to jump into?

Besides Burning I only know Secret Sunshine and Poetry, both good.

will try poetry and report back

mother was the one for me too

it's been a while but i remember thinking it was on par with great hitchcock

I liked this a lot more than Burning but I would never think to compare them.

I enjoyed the hell out of this movie.

Count me among those who haven't ever really gotten terribly into this dude's work up until this movie and fully embraced the crossover. Enjoy re-rewatching The Host to the rest of you, tho.

oh hey if you want another class warfare movie from this year (and one that will definitely be in my faves of 2019), try 'The Last Black Man in San Francisco'

Parasite was so good that I don't want to see any other class warfare movie from this or any other year ever again. If anyone puts on The Last Black Man in San Francisco while I'm in the room I'm getting up and leaving.

that's the spirit!

oh hey, here's another one you'll want to leave the room for that I just remembered that's not so much class warfare as an eco-comedy/drama with a lot of bong's penchant for comic bookish magic realism: Woman at War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2v3_jHrvBQ

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/drqrii/im_bong_joon_ho_director_of_parasite_ama/

Parasite is the best move ive seen this year

Snowpiercer was also great craic

this was ridiculously entertaining, and powerful at the end. definitely preferred this to snowpiercer and okja (okja was similarly structured for maximum gut-punch), and the cast was incredibly charming.

i liked snowpiercer a lot, it's dumb but imo dumb things are good

this movie was excellent though. i would like to vigorously disagree with everyone upthread and say the climax is the best part

besides the ghost scene

i've avoided seeing Okja because he is sure as shit gonna make me feel for the big hippo thing and then kill it. i've played the last guardian; can't fool me again

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Sunday, October 27, 2019 8:41 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

has anyone informed you that doesn't happen

though the ending *is* depressing in a fundamentally similar way

the flooding scene in this movie made me wanna die

okja is really bad imho but this is incredible, best dark comedy since get out

“Fundamentally similar” is close enough for me thanks

i did not enjoy okja but i'm glad i got to see that jake gyllenhaal performance anyway

Sister sitting on top of the toilet smoking in the flooding bathroom was an incredible shot, imo

is there a thread for the lighthouse yet?

arr it be The Lighthouse (Eggers, 2019) - Pattinson, Dafoe, sea shanties

saw this in the theater tonight. really really amazing movie

i have at least four friends who basically never see movies who were raving to me about how brilliant this was

this is me right now

Sister sitting on top of the toilet smoking in the flooding bathroom was an incredible shot, imo

― president of deluded fruitcakes anonymous (silby), Saturday, November 9, 2019 10:12 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Very otm

i also watched this last night!

this was the last movie i saw in a theatre before pandemic :(

Mine was memories of murder!

this was the last movie i saw in a theatre before pandemic :(

omg same! I think? I did go to the ballet the day before lockdown

also same. had just seen uncut gems around the same time.

Invisible Man was mine. well, I did make it to Tenet in the theater (as it was a low period of transmission and it was limited seating), but I haven't been since.

considering going to the movies was a 2x/week hobby for me, it's incredibly sad to have lost that. I used to pick showings at times that would be less attended, and just enjoy the peaceful evening alone in the theater vibing to the movies while drinking comically large sodas.

uncut gems was my second to last

Parasite and The Lighthouse were my last 2, on my last trip to Atlanta, Dec 2019.

Our local film festival was right before the first UK lockdown and I saw lots Inc Parasite, Lighthouse and JoJo Rabbit but the last thing I actually saw on the big screen was Black Narcissus in a church.

We went to a few things at GFF last year as well and it's strange thinking back now. The last things I saw were Bacurau, which was utterly packed out in a hot cinema 2, and Children Of Men.

My last was Portrait of a Lady On Fire which, bizarrely, was mentioned in Coronation Street last night using both the French and English titles.

I've been making Jjapaguri (a combination of Chapagetti and Neoguri), consisting of two different types of ramen and flavored with black bean sauce and shrimp broth. It is not made into a soup but eaten with less liquid as a savory noodle dish.

It was featured in that scene where Jang Hye-jin as Chung Sook the replacement housekeeper/cook was frantically making up a dish to satisfy the lady owner who was coming home. She made it by adding big sauteed chunks of sirloin

Just watched this over the weekend with my 19 year old son, at his recommendation. The entire cast is a treasure.

After seeing this a little while ago, I watched Memories of Murder and the short film Influenza last week. They're all powerful and feats of impressive control; maybe he's yet to make (or I've yet to see) the film that really connects in a deeper way.

So guys

This film is pretty good fyi

Well done.

I got there in the end!

But have you seen The Host?

I've scheduled that one for 2034

you should also check out Memories of Murder before the end of the century

otm

I tried watching this recently and for whatever reason, it gets way too suspenseful for me. There's a certain kind of suspense that has always caused me enormous levels of stress - that in which the protagonist is about to get caught doing something they shouldn't be. That scene seems like a masterful take on that, but unfortunately, fight or flight kicks in for me and my response is to turn the TV off and run out of the room. The first part where I shut it off was...

...when the Park family is coming home when their camping trip gets rained out and everybody is hurrying to hide. Ki-jung sliding under the coffee table as the family came walking up the stairs was just nightmarish levels of suspense for me and I noped out.

Then I left the movie off for about a month. I had allowed myself to come to terms with action of the movie and it had mellowed a little in my mind. I had thought that the suspense probably couldn't get any higher and it would taper off quickly, so I made another attempt at finishing it in the last week or so. And I got just a few minutes until...

...Mrs. Kim kicks the old housekeeper down the stairs (and might have broken her neck???).

I kinda would like to finish the movie (and last time I watched it, Hulu said it was on it's way out, so I might have missed my chance), but it also might just not be for me.

...at which point I couldn't deal with it and had to shut it off again.

the tension is masterfully delivered

yeah, scenes like that are tough for me also! i remember an INCREDIBLE feeling of tension in the theater in those parts; the coffee-table scene is what my brain goes to when i picture this movie. i also remember a really vivid sense that i was sharing this same nightmare with a couple hundred other people. i think that made it easier to bear, in a way?

i rewatched the host recently for the first time since i saw it in theaters and i did not love it as much as i remembered loving it. but i also saw memories of murder for the first time and that one is amazing. anyone who loves zodiac should also watch memories of murder, they are very similar conceptually in a lot of ways.

I’ve been wanting to watch MoM for so long but my wife is incredibly squeamish so might need to find a solo night

its such a tonally rich and strange and playful movie but when it wants to hit you, oof